Composer and conductor Peter Eötvös.
In Monday’s (3/25) Limelight (Australia), Jason Blake writes, “The composer Peter Eötvös, a tireless advocate for contemporary music over a career spanning six decades, has died in Budapest after a long illness. He was 80. Born in Transylvania (then part of Hungary, now Romania), Eötvös studied composition in Hungary and in West Germany. He composed scores for some notable Hungarian films in the early 1960s before coming to international attention as a member of the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and 1976. He later served as musical director and conductor of the Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) and from 1985 to 1988, was principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Between 1997 and 2023, he published 14 operas. Raised in a musical family … the young Eötvös took to the piano and, aged 11 came to the attention of György Ligeti … Aged 14, he undertook study under Zoltán Kodály at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music…. In 1981, Karlheinz Stockhausen entrusted him with conducting the premiere of his opera Donnerstag aus Licht at La Scala … In 1978, Pierre Boulez asked Eötvös to conduct the opening concert of IRCAM in Paris and he was then appointed musical director of Boulez’s Ensemble intercontemporain … His wife, Mari Mezei, was a significant contributor to his body of work, acting as dramatic advisor and librettist…. Eötvös championed the works of emerging composers and fostered dialogue between artists across cultures and disciplines.”
